by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

Former Ohio governor Ted Strickland says he won't seek his old job next year and challenge Republican John Kasich, who booted the Democrat out of office in 2010.

In a post on Twitter, Strickland said Tuesday the timing wasn't right for his family.

"In many ways, this has been a very difficult decision," Strickland said in a statement. "I look back fondly on my time as Ohio's 68th governor and am proud of my administration's efforts to guide our state through the greatest national economic crisis since the Great Depression."

Ohio is one of those states that always figures into the national conversation about politics. So that automatically deems the 2014 governor's race one to watch, as does the fact that polls show Kasich vulnerable.

A Quinnipiac University poll taken in December found 43% of Ohio voters said they did not believe Kasich, a former House Budget Committee chairman, deserves a second term and 44% said another Republican should challenge him.

Strickland vowed he and his wife, Frances, would continue to be politically active. He was one of a handful of prime-time speakers not named Clinton or Obama who garnered headlines at the Democratic National Convention last summer, with a fiery denunciation of Mitt Romney's candidacy.

One such memorable Strickland line: "If Mitt was Santa Claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves."